My guest is Isabelle Zapata, the Learning Center Coordinator at the Free Flight Exotic Bird Sanctuary where we recorded this episode. She leads youth education programs where she enjoys sharing her passion for studying avian behavior and companion parrot husbandry. Outside of her role here, she continues to work with children as a public-school music teacher.

You will hear a number of exotic birds in the background and you can look forward to pictures of some of them on the podcast's Instagram - @lookingatbirdspodcast soon.

One change that has occurred since the recording of this episode is that the Free Flight Exotic Bird Sanctuary is once again open to the public! Please check out their website for more information - https://www.freeflightbirds.org/

And for more about some of the great things going on there, check out their Instagram - @freeflightbirds.

Chapters
00:00 - Intro
00:57 - What birds might we hear in the background?
01:32 - Isabelle's Background with Birds
04:27 - Bird of the Episode: Blue and Gold Macaw
14:57 - How New Birds Come to Free Flight
17:01 - Re-socializing New Birds
20:04 - Differences between Staff & Visitors Interacting with Birds
21:34 - Importance of Keeping Birds in the Friend Zone
24:18 - Things that Contribute to Free Flight being a Good Habitat
28:02 - Types and Characteristics of Parrots
29:48 - More about the Parrots at Free Flight
33:38 - Info for Potential Adopters
41:46 - A Little More about Free Flight
43:04 - Outro

Thank you for listening!